The viewers of Zee Café are going to be glued to their screens in the month of July. The English entertainment channel is rounding up the band and marching in full swing with a lineup that will consist of everything from drama and mystery to romance and comedy.

Zee Café is starting the parade with season 10 of Grey’s Anatomy starting 6th of July, which will reveal the fate of the unconscious Richard Webber as we say farewell to the much loved Christina Yang.

Zee Café has added a brand new show to the programming bouquet, The Mysteries of Laura, which will premiere on 20th of July. The comical show follows the life of Laura Diamond, a brilliant NYPD homicide detective who seems rather unassuming but gets the job done while juggling her twin boys and ex-husband.

The Indian discerning viewers will continue to enjoy the popular shows Pretty Little Liars season 6 and Mistresses season 3, which will be aired along with the US. In addition, Zee Café will also air season 3 of Scandal beginning 10th of July. The Big Bang Hour- a special hour dedicated to The Big Bang Theory – will continue to air season 1-8. The channel will also air season 4-6 of The Middle with 2 back to back episodes starting 13th of July where the hilarious life of Frankie Heck and her family will take a new turn.

Zee Café will end the parade with a bang, showing The Princess Diaries on 26th of July as The Sunday Brunch Special. The movie follows the comical journey of Mia Thermopolis, a shy San Francisco teenager, who is thrown when she learns that she is a real princess.

Zee Café will continue to entertain its viewers with their favourite ongoing shows – Ground Floor season 2, American Idol season 16, Reign season 2, and House of Cards season 3.  The channel will air the season Finale of Desperate Housewives on 19th of July.

Watch the fabulous shows, and much more only on Zee Café!

Redefines the English Movies space with The Gold Class of Hollywood

Times Network, which caters to the nation’s crème de la crème of premium television audiences, today launched its most premium offering yet – MN+, which brings The Gold Class of Hollywood Movies with both, popular and critically acclaimed titles, in pristine HD quality for the connoisseur.

MN+ is not just an extension of the premium MOVIES NOW SD offering – it has completely different content, right from a new identity and on-air look to its own movies library that includes some of the most high profile and critically acclaimed titles.

Vivek Srivastava, Senior Vice President & Head English Entertainment Cluster, said, “We are delighted to launch MN+ today. The channel has been hand-crafted for not just the informed, intelligent and discerning movie lovers, but indeed for the cineastes as well. MN+ is an all new English Channel experience that will showcase must-watch movies in HD – movies that are universally celebrated and debated. It will offer an experience that will make every moment valuable for the viewer, and thereby give them the Gold Class Experience of Hollywood. “

MN+ has emerged from the Times Network’s philosophy and commitment to bringing its viewers only the richest and most varied content.

MN+ and MOVIES NOW are two complementing channels that together provide the most holistic and complete movie viewing experience for movie lovers” said Srivastava

The MN+ library comprises of must-watch movies across genres that are universally celebrated and are discussed extensively in social gatherings of people who have an opinion.  The channel will not only showcase great titles, but will also package them in interesting on-air properties like Center Stage, Great Adaptations, Opening Night and Hollywood Select, among others.

Sharing more information on the core TG of the channel, Srivastava said, “MN+ is for those premium audiences that have the temperament to be choosy about what life has to offer and have evolved to value only the best. Our target audience member is a focused individual who, by virtue of his intelligence and sensitivity, has time and ability to appreciate only the best that life has to offer. A person who seeks to fill moments of his leisure time with the greatest value.”

The MN+ extension of the MOVIES NOW English Movies offering comes at a time when viewers across our markets have responded extremely positively to the Movies Now brand.  “The rapidly growing reach and ratings of MOVIES NOW over the past year bears testimony to this,” Srivastava said, adding, “MOVIES NOW leads the category in BARC ratings. The channel commands a 26% market share and has the highest reach in the category (Source: BARC, Wk. 21-24, 2015 NCCS AB, 15-50 yrs.’, All India 1Mn+ towns, Individuals)

Speaking about advertiser endorsement, he said, “Not just viewer delight, we are also pleased and humbled by the strong and enthusiastic response from advertisers and marketers. Over the past year almost all the major brands have been present on MOVIES NOW and we are increasing that count every day.

“We are confident that MN+ will add immensely to viewer and advertiser numbers and delight. India is on a high aspirational curve, and TV audiences across markets are familiar with the best of international world-class entertainment. The coming implementation of DAS in Phase 3 and 4 markets will push the envelope for world class content even further, and I am confident our English Cluster entertainment offerings will be in the forefront of the growth curve.”

9Apps, the world’s leading third-party Android app store, announced the launch of a fun and exciting app, 9Apps OnTV for its Indian consumers. With 9Apps OnTV, you can create your own breaking news and share it with your friends on Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp.

9Apps has roped in television celebrity couple Upen Patel and Karishma Tanna for the launch. In turn, the company will donate money for every download of 9Apps OnTV to Prayas, a social welfare society that Upen and Karishma support. Prayas works to empower and provide opportunity to children and women of economically weaker section of the society.

Talking about the new app, Simon Shi, Head of 9Apps said, “Our aim is to make your mobile experience diverse and colourful. We always try and deliver entertaining, exciting and fun products to our customers. We have a deep understanding of what an Indian consumer likes. I am confident this app will delight many.”

Commenting on the move, Karishma Tanna said, “We played a prank on social media to draw people’s attention to our endeavor. We are grateful to 9Apps for their donations. 9Apps OnTV is not just fun but you also get to play a part in improving lives of millions of children and women. I request all my fans to download this app.”

Money donated by 9Apps will work towards imparting free education to poor and deprived girl children. Prayas will work with the two-fold objective of developing basic education for street children and of preventing children in difficulties from ending up on the streets.

Weber Shandwick, one of the world’s leading global public relations firms, today appointed Rafi Qadar Khan as executive vice president, Weber Shandwick India. Based in Delhi, Khan will report to Valerie Pinto, chief executive officer, Weber Shandwick India.

Khan will oversee client delivery and focus on the implementation of the firm’s strategy to deliver robust and engaging client work. He will play an integral role in strengthening current business, while providing strategic counsel on business development within the market.

Khan brings over 20 years of communications experience to Weber Shandwick. He joins from Cohn and Wolfe in India where he led the agency’s strategic growth and was at the forefront of diversifying the firm’s client portfolio. He has extensive experience in brand creation and positioning, entry strategy and integrated marketing.

“In this era of engagement, we need to keep abreast of emerging trends and evolving client needs. With Rafi’s appointment, I believe that we have acquired a great asset who can further mentor our teams to embrace the transformation afoot in media and help Weber Shandwick stay ahead of the curve,” said Valerie Pinto, chief executive officer, Weber Shandwick India.

“This is an exciting phase in the communications industry,” Khan said. “I am thrilled to be a part of the growing network at Weber Shandwick in India. I look forward to working with this talented and diverse team of professionals and am sure that, together, we can deliver impactful campaigns and results.”

Media Stalwarts, Corporate Communicators,Bloggers &Tech Marketersgathered at the forum in Pune, India

MediaValueWorks, India's first communications company to offer cloud based PR architecture to help companies commune at a global level efficaciously concluded their inaugural Tech Editors’ meet at Pune. Themed as ‘How to Leverage on New Age Media’ the forum put forth expert conversations on futuristic media engagements across a cross section of the media universe.

The thought stimulating sessions were addressed by media experts on how a communicator should transform and sharpen their skills to develop far-impacting, compelling content that can positively influence their company’ brand.

Talking on the relevance of such inspiring & engaging forums, Rachana Chowdhary, Founder Director, MediaValueWorks said, “We are overwhelmed by the response received from the Industry, as the inaugural session of the Tech-Editor’s Meet was a roaring success at Pune. The delegates sportingly soaked themselves in the atmosphere at the event, whilerevisiting their strategic communications decisions and introduction of newer best practices. We aim to advance the conversation levels amongst the stakeholders of the industry, thereby garnering a scientific methodology to the business.”

Delving into all aspects of “telling stories” the meet encompassed in itself sessions on advanced platforms of media engagements like business media, B2B broadcasting, engaging through videos, relevance of language media & exploring the blogosphere.

Session highlights - Leveraging New Age Media

Evolving Business Centric News Stories

Broadening the B2B Horizon

Embedding Video Stories in Regular Communications

Impact of language media as a global platform

Capturing the Transformation at Blogs

Digitizing your Records / Archiving for use

The Tech Editors’ Meet at Pune saw an increased focus of media attention for the technology stories differentiating on the nature of the content and its penetration. The forum supposed and expressed the need for expanded space allocation towards technology sector stories primarily moving beyond the gadgets and the devices. There is a definitive need to express more of growth-oriented, enterprises and SME-led software architecture stories, as India witnesses a stupendous growth in the IT deployments.

The amalgamation of great minds aspired to proactively change how companies communicate to the media & to their target audiences. The Meet witnessed keen participation from several leading corporates of Pune.